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Tuesday, 30 June 2015

the poppies and other flowers are wonderful along the John Muir Walkway in Musselburgh at the moment.

Plenty of bees too and a flash of blue dragonfly. Two butterflies were dancing together, flying up into the tops of the trees, I thought they were speckled wood butterflies but those aren't (according to my book) supposed to be around Edinburgh). Plus I saw this wonderfully green beetle / weevil. Edited to add: this has now been identified by a member of Edinburgh Natural History Society as either a Phyllobius or Polydrusus species of weevil

and just over the sea wall I was delighted to see this group of young starlings poking around in the seaweed, not something I've seen them do before

and further along these eiders, the males in eclipse plumage. Two male mallards in the foreground.

Sunday, 28 June 2015

I have visited the island of Iona (off the island of Mull off the west coast of Scotland) only once but it is a magically beautiful place so I was keen to see the film Iona, which was chosen as the closing gala of the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The island is the star of the film, with it's beautiful scenery, slow moving farm animals and constant birdsong. Nothing in the story for me lives up to the beauty of the setting.

Iona returns to the island of her birth, escaping from a violent crime in Glasgow, bringing her son with her. The two of them move in temporarily and uneasily with an old friend of Iona's.

Her return to the island stirs up old unresolved situations and causes tensions among her old friends who are both happy and bemused to see her back. As secrets and conflicts come to the surface the film quickly becomes melodramatic.

The film seems to represent the island as a whole as an intentional Christian community, which it isn't. Yes the island is a close knit community and many islanders (though not all) are Christian (However the predominant church is the Church of Scotland not the strict Calvinist Free Church of many Hebridean islands, the latter being what seems to be portrayed in the film, while in reality there isn't a Free Church on the island). On the other hand, the Iona Community is a worldwide ecumenical Christian community with its centre in a residential community based at Iona Abbey. That and the fact that Iona is the island where Christianity first came to Scotland are the reasons that Iona is seen as an important Christian centre. There are in fact tensions between the Iona Community (which isn't even mentioned in the film) and the islanders. All of which makes the extreme piousness of all the islanders in the film somewhat unrealistic.
Iona was the closing gala of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015. To be honest I would have gone for Scottish Mussel, upbeat, entertaining with something important to say. Though perhaps with its English lead/writer/director that film isn't Scottish enough to qualify for the honour?

To read my other reviews from the festival, follow the links below:

Blood Cells - one man's journey after he lost everything in the foot and mouth epidemic.

2001, and foot and mouth disease is sweeping across the country. Adam, a farmer's son loses everything and takes to a life of wandering round, picking up casual work. But having received an important piece of family news, he decides it might be time to return home.

Blood Cells follows his journey, visiting old friends and relatives, spending time with casual acquaintances and procrastinating whether to actually go home. This low key film is beautifully shot, with stunning landscapes and cityscapes and close ups of misty fields. Adam's sense of loneliness is well conveyed, as he walks away from every encounter and wanders alone through fair grounds and discos. His sense of displacement and his yearning to refind his family connections are also well conveyed through haunting use of flashback.

It's a melancholy study of the effect that the foot and mouth epidemic had on one of the people who lost everything.

Friday, 26 June 2015

With Scotland one of the few places where it can be found, the freshwater pearl mussel is one of the most endangered molluscs in the world. It's now also the central theme in a new Scottish romantic comedy Scottish Mussel which received it's world premiere today at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Ritchie and his three pals are unemployed and restless so they try a spot of illegal fishing for pearls up in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland. Along the way Ritchie falls for Beth (Talulah Riley, who also wrote and directed the film), a conservationist passionate about saving Scottish wildlife particularly the freshwater pearl mussel.

So begins a hilarious (and often very silly) comedy. Will the lads give up their illegal activities and become unlikely conservation heroes? Will Beth ditch the irritating, American conservationist Ethan for Ritchie's Scottish charms? Will the criminal overlords get their comeuppance and will the local police finally find themselves with the satisfaction of capturing 'real villains'?

The action is aided by the stunning setting and the addition of an injured otter who is nursed back to health through the course of the film.

Behind all the humour, the film addresses (occasionally slightly heavy handedly) several important issues around wildlife conservation, including pollution, the ever-pressing need for funding and the threat of poaching on populations of endangered animals.

Well worth watching.

(and this is great news for the real life conservation of pearl mussels).

Filmed in 5 days this improvised drama follows the story of Claire and Lisa two sisters on the run who steal a car. They find out that the car belongs to the Wilding Sisters, poets on their way to a poetry retreat in the Welsh Black Mountains. The car thieves decide that a poetry retreat will be an ideal place to hide out if only they can successfully pretend to be poets.

The small group of poets hike through the stunning mountain scenery with the aim of letting nature bring inspiration to them. Claire and Lisa both fall for Richard, a genuine poet, which causes much jealousy from his prima donna ex-girlfriend. All the characters struggle with the challenges of erecting tents and composing off-the-cuff free-form poetry.

Claire and Lisa at first struggle with the concept of poetry. When Claire challenges the other poets about their pretensions, she suggests that their poems are no better than random readings of till receipts. She then goes on to read a till receipt (including a dramtic rendering of the bar-code) with a wonderfully natural air of poetry. Later she abandons the group to their hike and wanders off to immerse herself in nature and to try to discover her own poetic voice.

The film is beautifully filmed, showing the scenery and plantlife to best advantage and at the same time is hilarious, with the various rivalries and misunderstandings between the characters. It's an excellent example of a successful improvisation, I barely noticed it was improvised after the first five minutes, the dialogue has a wonderfully natural feel to it.

Although not explicity mentioned in the film, I suspect the idea of the Welsh Black Mountain Poetry Retreat was inspired by the mid 20th Century American Black Mountain Poets.

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Desert Dancer is based on the life of Adshin Ghaffarian,an Iranian dancer and choreographer who currently lives in exile in France having fled from his home country due to persecution. (Though having read this interview, I realise that many liberties have been taken in fictionalising his story).

In Iran, dancing, though not strictly illegal, is forbidden. As a boy, Ghaffarian had always wanted to dance and when he became a theatre student he was able to secretly access online videos from which he learned dance styles and techniques which otherwise would have remained a mystery to him. He gathers a group of friends round him and together they create an underground dance company, meeting in secret and in constant fear of being discovered by the culture police.

The choreography in this film is superb (though it is choreographed not by Ghaffarian himself but by Akram Khan). The scene where the company dance in the desert to a small and select audience is stunning, the dancing is passionate and powerful and works beautifully in the stark sandy landscape.

This is a moving, engaging film about the power of art to enable people to express themselves and to resist oppression. Art, in this case dance, may not directly change political situations but it communicates, changes people, increasing their confidence in their own voice and helping them make connections with other people and to effect wider change.

Desert Dancer received it's UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It deserves to get wide release into cinemas everywhere. Even if you think you don't like modern dance, you should look out for it!

You can read my other reviews from the film festival by following the links below:

I was just saying to Crafty Green Boyfriend last week how I hadn't seen many terns this year at Musselburgh. Then today I saw more than I've ever seen before! At least ten sandwich terns and 5 common (or possibly arctic, they're very difficult to tell apart at any distance) were flying above the Firth of Forth, diving down to catch fish. Then there was another group of sandwich terns sitting on the lagoons, showing off their slightly punkish 'hairstyles'.

tall melilot is at its best at the moment, lining the side of the walkway

Red poppies are now showing in the verges (seen here with red bartsia). I've never seen either of these flowers in these verges before.

red and white clovers on the grassy scrubland on top of the reclaimed ash pits.

It's amazing to think that this area, which is so rich in wildlife, is actually reclaimed from industrial ash pits. Also, now that Cockenzie Power Station is shutting down, the active ash pits (see the grey hill in the background of the photo below) is also going to be reclaimed as an extension of the Lagoons Nature reserve.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

This prose poem watches the inhabitants of a small coastal village in Wales over the course of a day. Starting by observing their dreams it follows them through their days of gossip, work, friendships, rivalries and lusts.

The village is dominated by the sea, from the daily tides through old Captain Cat's dreams of his seafaring days. The visuals lend almost equal weight to the sea and its creatures as they do to the lives and desires of the villagers.

It's an impressionistic and bawdy interpretation of this classic piece of Welsh literature, the dreamlike cinematography matching the mood of the words perfectly, even as the two often don't match precisely in detail.

A Welsh language version of this film has also been made.

The film will be getting general release into UK cinemas on 27 October to mark Dylan Thomas' centenary.

Monday, 22 June 2015

When you're out in nature it's really important to enjoy what you see and on one level perhaps it doesn't matter what species it is as long as you appreciate it's beauty or interest value. On the other hand, we can't begin
to conserve our wildlife unless we know what we have, where it is, and how scarce
or common it is. So therefore it's important to try to learn to identify species and to record where and when you see them to help conservation efforts.

It's also an interesting challenge to find out what a species is. I'm naturally curious and always enjoy this challenge, though there are times when I know I'll never identify the species!

Some groups of plants and animals are quite tricky and take practice and in some cases specialised training to really get to know them at all.

I recently became very interested in hoverflies but quickly realised that with the exception of a few obvious species I'm unlikely to ever learn many of them. On the other hand, I'm quite quickly getting to know more bee species (though the two most common species buff tailed and white tailed bumble bees seem more or less identical to me).

I've long found speedwells and some of the vetches to be two groups of plants that are fairly tricky but that with practice I should be able to sort them out (though it's not helped by the fact that I've seen the same common name used for different species in different publications!)

So which are the most useful places to send your records?

Your local record centre in Scotland wants your records from the area they cover. If you live in the Lothians or Boders then your local record centre is The Wildlife Information Centre. As well as wanting general wildlife records they run occasional surveys, currently they're interested in records of buzzards, red kites or kestrels in Lothians and Borders.

If you're a birdwatcher in the UK, Birdtrack is the British Trust for Ornithology's big recording scheme.

Richard, a teenager with learning difficulties, lives with his unpredictably bullying brother, Polly in a dilapidated caravan in the beautiful East Anglian countryside. He spends his days stealing foods from the surrounding farm fields, cooking for his brother and wandering through the woods and talking to Fiona, his pet chicken. Meanwhile Polly spends the meagre amount of money he earns from odd jobs on beer.

One day Richard meets Annabelle, who turns out not to be the spoilt little rich kid she initially seems to be and the two develop an affectionate though fragile friendship. It's obvious that both of them benefit from each other's company and the friendship becomes more and more important as Polly becomes more tired of being his brother's keeper.

This is a beautifully made film, insightful and amusing and though not without clear eyed portrayal of the violent episodes in his life, offering ultinately a real sense of hope for Richard. Definitely the highlight of the film festival for me so fat.

Another film that centres on the relationship between a person and their animals, though there the similarity ends, is Nearby Sky.

Fatima Ali Al Hameli is famous as the first Emirati woman to enter camels in the nation's camel beauty pageants. Nearby Sky is a documentary film that follows her progress as she aims to be the first woman to win a prize! Shot in the vast sandy deserts of the United Arab Emirates this is an inspiring story of one woman's battle to be taken seriously in a man's world. She is an amazingly feisty and engaging character, who earns the respect of many of them men around her (though many talk about her behind her back). She takes excellent care of her camels, washing them regularly with shampoo and handpicking special plants to supplement their diets. The judges say her camels aren't good enough, but she suspects that this may be because she's a woman. I agree, her camels are beautiful, specially the young ones. It's amazing to see all the camels coming together, dressed in jewellery and drapes.

These films are showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

Sunday, 21 June 2015

For 30 Days Wild today, I've been thinking about the state of greenery in the UK.

According to a recent report from the Royal Horticultural Society in the Independent newspaper, three times as many front gardens in the UK are now completely paved over compared to the number ten years ago. The stated reasons for this include people not having the time or energy to maintain their garden. Oddly the article doesn't mention either the increased number of cars which means that owners are paving over the front garden for parking or the fact that even in a one car household, on a busy road, many people pave over the garden to give themselves a turning circle so they don't need to reverse into a busy street first thing in the morning.

The effect of paving over so many front gardens is disastrous for local plant and animal life and also increases the risks of flooding, with water unable to soak into soil and instead running off hard surfaces.

better health for people who get outside and garden
more space for wildlife
improved air movements and over a large area can help to reduce the temperature
insulation for housing surrounded by greenery

The central question in Infini could be framed as 'will Whit Carmichael be home for tea?'. A simple question but given that his day involves the first day on a job where he will slipstream his way to a distant, disaster-prone mining station on another planet, the question is of more than ordinary concern to his pregnant wife.

My liking for science fiction is more literary than cinematic and more based on originality of ideas than amount of violence so I didn't come to this film with the baggage of 'already seen too many other violent SF movies about the same ideas' that seem to be brought to it by some other reviewers.

Yes Infini for me was too violent, did there need to be so many fight scenes? At the same time the off-planet mining colony is a convincingly unsettling and creepy place and the storytelling tense and interesting enough to keep me engaged. I was struck by the use of camerawork to show mental unbalance, the use of the soundtrack to heighten tension and the questions about the meaning of life and the processes of evolution underlying the mysterious parasitic disease that has killed so many people on Infini and threatens to prevent Carmichael's return to his home in time for his tea.

If you watch a lot of violent, action-based SF films, apparently this one feels very derivative. If like me you don't then you may well be drawn into the action, while perhaps deploring the violent excess. And in either case, if you're wondering whether Whit Carmichael does make it home in time for tea, then you'll just need to see the film.

Friday, 19 June 2015

Set in a remote village, deep in cactus covered mountains, two women are pregnant by the same man. Angele is the man's stepdaughter and Chebe's husband is away working somewhere else. La Tirisia follows the lives of these women and their families and friends.

Nothing much happens in this village, other than the occasional visit from a troupe of clown acrobats and a political hustings where so few people turn up the candidate can't be bothered to stop and speak (a scene full of humour). So the individual dramas going on in these women's lives are noted and commented on, though without too much overt negativity outwith the women's closest circles. Angele helps her family with their work in the salt fields, while seemingly in denial about the fact she's soon to become a mother. Cheba meanwhile looks after her growing family, helped by her gay best friend, and waits anxiously for her husband's return

Life is dominated by the starkly magnificent landscape and the amazing cacti as much as it is by the church. The dusty ochre palette is occasionally brightened by the red of bougainvillea and carnations. Dialogue is sparse and much of the story is told through the low
key-actions and body language of the characters, which in this film
works much better than it does in some similarly quiet films.

This is a beautiful, sensitively made film that will linger in the mind.

30 Days Wild goes to the cinema - how the landscape backdrops two films set in very different countries (Sand Dollars and The Gulls)
Disclaimer - I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and saw a free press screening of this film.

Today for the 30 Days Wild Challenge I decided to look at the wildlife from my window. This is something I always do, particularly at the time of the year when the swifts dance endlessly in the skies above our flat.

This is the view from our living room window

We live in the centre of Edinburgh, but there are quite a lot of trees and green spaces about, particularly hidden away behind the buildings in the backgreens.

So what wildlife is there?

At this time of year, as I said at the start of this post, there are swifts! My favourite birds, they're declining in the UK (though not so much in Scotland). There seem to be fewer flying round over our flat this year, but I've seen more in some places nearby where normally there aren't so many.

I've noticed three male blackbirds chasing each other this year. Normally there are only two around here. This year one pair of blackbirds are nesting in the tree in the photo. Another pair are nesting in clematis that is growing on a nearby building. The third pair I think are nesting somewhere behind the lower building in the photo. The male blackbirds start singing early in the morning and often sing throughout the day too.

The blackbirds don't sing as much as the chaffinch though. I have no idea where this chaffinch nests, I sometimes wonder whether it ever has time to do anything but sing. During May the male seemed to sing non-stop, though it's singing less now.

I also sometimes hear a dunnock singing.

Goldfinches became much more common in our street last year. At first I thought this meant the local population was booming, but then I realised that the goldfinches had been driven from their favourite feeding grounds in the wasteland by the side of the carpark up the road. The carpark is now been developed (into offices and retail units I think) and the scrubby weeds where the goldfinches fed has mostly disappeared. They do seem to be settling into the local gardens though and it's lovely to see them flying around, twittering as they go.

House sparrows have become marginally more common in our street recently too. They've been declining in the UK for a while now, but where they still live, they seem to do pretty well. There's always been good numbers of house sparrows at two sites quite close to where we live and now they seem to be expanding their range and I've started to see them more often in our street.

Starlings occasionally gather in small numbers here too, though more often in winter.

Woodpigeons live in the area, and often sit on chimney pots cooing loudly.

Collared doves too live hearby. At this time of year they perform a fluttering courtship dance which is lovely to watch.

There are lots of feral pigeons too. Many of the feral pigeons in our area have a lot of white in their plumage. This is because they interbreed with the beautiful whote fan tailed pigeons at nearby Gorgie Farm.

Lesser black backed gulls are very common here at this time of year. They spend huge amounts of time sitting on chimney pots or flying around, often with good in their bills.

We occasionally also see jackdaws here. They're becoming more common in the built up areas of Edinburgh, though they've always been common in the open green areas of the city.

Occasionally we get unexpected special visits from unusual birds. Several years ago, a large flock of fieldfares appeared on Boxing Day and had disappeared by the next day. It really was a special treat to see these winter thrushes so close to home.

I've twice seen white tailed sea eagles fly over the roofs. These are enormous birds and on both occasions i didn't quite beleive what I was seeing. But if white tailed sea eagles are commonly found in a supermarket carpark in Dunfermline then this part of Edinburgh could quite easily be on their flight path.

Thursday, 18 June 2015

The huge Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire, and before that the Belgian Congo) is hugely rich in mineral resources (including coltan, manganese and gold) but none of this wealth filters down to it's population, most of whom are very poor. The country is also riven with conflict, fuelled in large part by those very minerals.

When Elephants Fight explores the effect that conflict minerals have on the social and political life of DR Congo. We meet women who have been repeatedly raped by rebel soldiers, men who just want an honest job, but who are pushed by poverty into taking up arms, young children singing anti-war songs, miners who work in danferous and unhealthy conditions to dig the minerals from the earth. There are dead bodies everywhere.

This situation is made far worse by the obscure international financing that lies behind the minerals. The minerals are smuggled across the border to Rwanda where they are branded as Rwandan produced minerals and sold on the international market. In addition, the mining rights have been sold to offshore companies who then make unbelievably large profits by selling these rights to huge global conglomerations (As is often the case with international finance, I just didn't understand how this could happen, while DR Congo looks on at all its wealth being drained away) So where once the state mining company guaranteed its workers three meals a day and a good house, now they have nothing.

This is a very difficult film to watch, the story is harrowing and it's full of grim images of dead, mutilated bodies and partly filmed with a shaky handheld camera it can make the viewer feel literally a little queasy. But it's one of those films that needs to be seen and ask yourself how much you need that new mobile phone? that new i-pad? At the very least start asking about wehter your electronic equipment contains conflict minerals.

I love travelling by train (it's also generally a relatively environmentally friendly way to travel) and was delighted to have this opportunity to travel by train through a country I've never visited and am never likely to visit.

The Iron Ministrytakes us on a train ride through China, offering an alternative view of the country as seen from the well used public transport system.

Filmed over a period of three years and spliced together from footage of many different train journeys in different parts of China, The Iron Ministry moves seamlessly from close observation of the workings of the train to the behaviour of staff and passengers with only occasional glimpses out of the windows. We see a street of smog shrouded high rise blocks in Beijing and a view of tree covered hills, but other than that the focus is very much an interior one.

The trains are overcrowded, with people sitting in the aisles and near the doors, people taking over the door area to prepare meat for sale or to eat their instant noodles. A young man wanders through the train demonstrating his wonderful cleaning cream that can clean anything, upsetting one young passenger who is distraught to see his artfully muddied up trainers given a clean against his will. Women sit embroidering complicated designs on the soles of slippers.

Elsewhere the film maker eavesdrops on conversations on issues including multicultural relations, the housing market, pollution and the political situation in China.

I would have liked more views from the windows and less spying on people in the sleeping compartments, but otherwise this immersive film is a fascinating and insightful (though obviously very partial) view of China.

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

It's 2035, drought and conflict have reduced much of the world to chaos and desert. Eva is expecting a child with her husband Kurt and they want to give it the best possible future, by finding a way into the United States of Europe. They manage to tunnel their way into the USE but are apprehended by police and taken to a 'Welcome Centre' where they are separated. Eva is kept locked up soon to be deported because her pregnancy renders her unsustainable. Kurt meanwhile is taken to an internment camp where the potentially sustainable are kept until they reach the sustainable 'Index Zero'. From here he tries to work his way round the system to be reunited with Eva.

Most of the action takes place in the claustrophobic environment of the internment camp and the prison, the muted palatte of colours adding to the sombre mood of the piece.

There are few particularly new ideas here but we're given an all too believable vision of a dystopian future, with a convincing mix of current preoccupations around immigration and the future of the European Union and details such as newsreels showing angry demonstrations against the Sustainability Index and Eva using spilled oil as nail polish.

It's very telling too, that for all the talk of sustainability, it seems obvious that in this version of the future, it's been left too late, at least in terms of anything resembling a natural world, where living things other than humans and the occasional crow might be able to exist.

It's an effectively made and tense film though the ending seemed oddly abrupt.

At this time of year it's always particularly wonderful to see our summer migrant birds. Today I got off the bus at Musselburgh to be greeted by several low flying swifts, swirling above the River Esk.

When I got to Musselburgh Lagoons bird hides, an even more wonderful sight awaited. Over 50 house martins (plus some swifts and swallows) were swirling round over the Lagoons, flying low over the water to pick up insects and flouting up in the sky in clouds. The soundtrack was provided by the house martins themselves, plus skylarks, reed buntings and willow warblers. I sat and enjoyed the spectacle for quite a while, sipping on my decaf coffee to keep me warm!

It really is nearly summer then! It would be easy to forget that, given the low grey clouds, the wind and the low temperatures.

As well as the house martins though, the day is bright with flowers, including

tall melilot

red clover

red bartsia

bitter vetch (?)

and this small yellow vetch, which I can never identify - is it hop trefoil? lesser yellow trefoil? black medick? If anyone knows, please let me know.